Question:

Birth Details:
Name: Mr. Ravikanth Sharma
Age: 32 years
Gender: Male

Professional background and current job profile (the company you are working for/area of business/designation):
Working as Head of Quality Assurance Department with a Multinational Corporation. Been with the group for last 10 years. There are 35 people reporting to me. Started as a technical trainee and have risen to a managerial post.

Your question (in not more than 200 words):
There are various issues that I have to cater to in my day-to-day work life. From achieving daily production targets set for me, handling people issues, technical problems, plus those senior to me make demands on my time to attend meetings and provide my critical inputs. The responsibilities and the areas that I am dealing with are increasing each day. Since I am multi-tasking, I keep forgetting many important issues. How do I create a framework in which I can develop my managerial skills to handle more work, effectively?

Answer:

Your background gives a clear indication that starting as a trainee, you have risen in the organisation within a reasonably short time. Though you are a technical person, you have now also been given managerial responsibilities. I am not sure if you have any management education background. However, this clearly reveals symptoms of issues faced by 'First-time Managers'.

Every leader, manager and executive has to handle multiple tasks at any given point of time. This is unavoidable. He may have been appointed for a particular work; however, with time, he will naturally get more and more responsibilities.

In any given situation, the Manager has to handle multiple projects and assignments. He is always under pressure.

Kautilya advises us on how to manage multiple projects at the same time and generate more profits for the company:

"And (they) should bring about the commencement of what is not done, the carrying out of what is commenced, the improvement of what is being carried out and the excellence of (the execution of) orders, in the case of works." (1.15.51)

He looks at four types of work that a Manager has to carry out:

Commencement of what is not done
There are many things that need to be done. Good Managers are those who start work on their own, rather than waiting for the bosses to tell them what to do. Each person has to become proactive. He needs to build his own pipeline. New work has to be started. New experiments have to be tried. New techniques have to be applied.

Carrying out of what is commenced
A Project Manager has said it well: "It is not important how many projects I started, but how many I have completed." Everyone knows about pressure getting built up simply because we are not able to complete the jobs that we started. Procrastination is the worst thing. Once you get into this bad habit, decisions are not taken on time, papers get piled up and people lose focus. The best solution is found in the proverb that says: "What you ought to do tomorrow, do today; what you want to do today, do it now!"

Improvement of what is being carried out
One needs to ensure that the work started should end with a quality output. One should continuously strive for excellence. The Japanese theory of Kaizen believes that there is always scope for continuous improvement in the work a person does. Excellence then becomes a habit.

Excellence in execution of orders
This means effective delegation. A Manager, like all other employees, has limited time and resources. Thus, in order to do multiple tasks, he has to delegate them to either his team members or to outsource the work. Learning the art of effective delegation is very essential if one wants to get climb up the corporate ladder. Management is not only about doing work on your own, but getting work done from others.

Once, a successful CEO who always appeared relaxed, was asked the secret of his cool temperament. He said, "Immediate decisions, faith in people whom I have given the work, and spending more time in activities which will give us more money."

Tips to follow:

Keep notes
Keep a notepad with you at all times. Whenever you are under work pressure and suddenly an interruption occurs, e.g. a phone call, etc., make a note of it. Whenever you are free, take action on the notes you have taken.

Train people
It is important to train the people under you. Spend an hour every day with your subordinates on mentoring and guiding them to become more efficient and productive.

Learn from seniors
You should observe and learn how your seniors are handling multiple tasks. Observe, read books, meet people and keep learning.

With Best Wishes,
Radhakrishnan Pillai